Ara stared at the entrance for a long moment after he released her arm. The branches of the tree were gnarly and twisted, wrapped around the entrance of the cave until she couldn’t tell where the tree ended and the mouth of the cave began. She hesitated. He had said that it would be her greatest challenge yet and it was hers to face alone. Was she ready? What would great her inside the dark nexus brimming with the twisted and menacing power of the darkside.
The energy called to her, the power emanating from the darkness drew her further into its shadows, even as the light of the swamp was swallowed and she found herself completely blind. One foot in front of the other, she moved slowly, each step a test at first, until she was sure there was solid ground beneath. The sounds of the outside world ceased to exist in the kingdom of darkness, her breathing and the echoes of her footsteps the only clue to her location and her surroundings.
She searched, not with her hands or her eyes, but with the Force itself. There, in the distance, a knot of power beckoned her, a shard of light in an otherwise pitch black world.
She smiled, recognizing it from before, the crystal a ball of warmth in her chest, drawing her closer. Another step and then….nothing. The world fell out from under her in an instant and she scrambled, clinging to anything she could grab a hold of. Her fingers scraped across the stone and dirt of the cave floor, at the last moment, pocket marks in the floor becoming handholds.
Her breathing and heartrate thudded in her ears as she clung to the side of the chasm that had opened up beneath her, her lower half hanging in the open air. A few muttered curses accompanied her efforts to find footholds as well. Her feet found purchase and she dragged her body over the edge of the hole, collapsing on the ground in a heap, muscles shaking and tears forming in her eyes.
She was glad she was here alone. How embarrassing to be brought down from something as simple as a little fall. She strained to see, the darkness still engulfing her vision. Nothing. Absolutely nothing.
She sat back, slamming a hand against the ground, the pain pushing away her anxiety long enough to focus. The signature she’d been following had shifted. Instead of being straight ahead, it beckoned from below, from somewhere in the deep abyss inches from her hand.
”Is this some kind of cruel joke?” She muttered to nothing in particular, not expecting a reply.
”Cruel, yes. Joke, no.”
The voice echoed through her mind, her head whipping around to find its source. She knew it was a futile exercise even as she did it. The voice was a haunting memory from a past she’d refused to remember. Pushing herself to her feet, she stepped to the edge of the stone, feeling for the open air with her toes.
Reaching out with the Force, she focused on the aura below, attempting to call it to her. No response. Not even the sound of shifting rock.
”Karking sithspawn.” She cursed and paced, momentarily blinded by anger. ”What good is sending someone into a cave to find a stone that no one can
get to?!”
”Who said you can’t get to it? You just have to jump.” This time the source of the voice was obvious. A specter standing just off to the side, her form ringed in soft silver glow, staring into the abyss. Almost as if she sensed the disciple’s glare, the image looked up, a familiar knowing smile settled on her face.
Ara sucked in a breath from between her teeth, momentarily frozen in shock. The woman was slightly taller than Ara herself, but just as thin and athletic in shape. Her hair hung in loose waves down her back, pulled away from her face by a simple band. Piercing green eyes met her gaze. Eyes Ara saw every day when she looked in the mirror.
”Mother…” Her voice trailed off as anger and pain replaced shock. The woman who’d sent Ara into the streets to scrap and fight for scraps of food and tech had never been as beautiful as the image standing in the cave. She’d been riddled with addiction to spice, her cheeks and eyes hollow and feverish with the cravings and withdrawals. She’d never spoken in soft tones, nor with any hint of kindness. This woman, whatever she was a trick of the cave. As was the chasm in front of her.
Or was it?
Ara picked up a small handful of rocks and tossed them into the chasm, ignoring the amused and slightly patronizing stare of the ghost of her mother. The sound of each small chunk of stone hitting the side and bouncing off echoed for far longer than she was comfortable with. The disciple winced and returned to pacing, as the woman chuckled.
She turned to the woman with fire in her eyes. A hand reached into her robe, drawing the hilt of a borrowed saber. ”Go away.” She snarled, advancing on the image, nearly falling into the pit in her haste. The specter laughed, a harsh sound grating on the ears as it echoed through the cave.
”You have to jump. Whether you like it or not, you have to jump.”
”I don’t
have to do anything. Least of all, anything you tell me to do.” She returned to pacing, her hand clinched around the metal hilt of the saber. She stopped and ignited the blade, the crimson light reflecting off the limestone walls, showing a massive drop-off directly in front of the young Ren. The light didn’t penetrate farther than a few feet in front of her, and another strangled yell of anger escaped the girl.
”What is there to fear? Jump and retrieve your crystal.” The voice was so calm, so reasonable, it pissed the girl further and she advanced on the ghost.
”I. Am. Not. Afraid.” A blatant lie, considering her reaction to almost falling into the depths a few moments before. She stood within inches of the glowing woman, her saber held off to the side but at the ready. ”What do you know of fear? You stayed in your squalor and sent a child out for a few ounces of spice! You never knew fear or struggle or cold or hunger, so GO. AWAY.”
The anger welled up without so much as a trigger. The simple sight of the woman who’d given birth to her combined with the rising anxiety of the sheer drop off, a volatile combination.
”When you admit it to yourself, the reason you hate and fear what has to be done, then you will be successful.”
Before Ara could act on her impulse to turn the saber on the conjuring, the woman was gone. Cursing the cave and its illusions, she turned her attention back to the problem at hand, how to retrieve the crystal somewhere in the depths of the crevice in front of her.
What was she afraid of? She could lie and say pain, but she didn’t remember the pain of hitting the ground the one time she had fallen from such a height. Pain was not her motivator.
No, pain had never bothered her. In fact, if she was truthful, it pushed her further.
Death?
No, she did not fear death either. She’d spent enough time on the streets starving, frozen to her bones, and wishing for the simple peace of death. Her life was worth more now, but she knew that one day she would die in service to the Order and she found peace in that.
What was left?
The only thing she valued beyond anything else, control. Her hand flexed, the blade of her saber disappearing in an instant. But she didn’t need the light anymore. She knew what she had to do. She had to release control. She had to trust in the Force, in the power surrounding her, rather than her reflexes and her charm.
She stepped chasm, her toes hanging over the edge. Her heart thudded in her chest as she stood over the unending darkness. Her hands clenched and unclenched, her knuckles white from the pressure. Before she could talk herself out of it, she wrapped the blanket of power around her and let go, falling into the darkness.
There was no sensation of falling, just solid ground beneath her feet. Her eyes snapped open to find a glowing red crystal nestled in the rock in front of her. Prying the crystal from the wall, she felt a ripple of something powerful wash over her. Tucking the shard carefully into a pocket, she turned and strode back towards the entrance.
((OOC: Ehhh....not 100% happy with it but I'm tired of rewriting it :lol
)